Layered
by Livxx
Summary: Belle has seen love before. Flufffff. Filler for Skin Deep
1. Chapter 1

**Ahhhh second story! This is exciting! Will be Rumbelle**_  
><em>

_Looking out from underneath,__  
>Fractured moonlight on the sea<br>Reflections still look the same to me,__  
>As before I went under.<em>

_And it's peaceful in the deep,_  
><em>Cathedral where you cannot breathe,<br>__No need to pray, no need to speak  
><em>_Now I am under._

_And it's breaking over me,  
><em>_A thousand miles onto the sea bed,  
><em>_Found the place to rest my head._

_Never let me go, never let me go._  
><em>Never let me go, never let me go.<em>

Florence and the Machine – Never Let Me Go_  
><em>

Belle is the daughter of a merchant king. They weren't always rich, or even comfortable. Her father's trade is too reliant on the variable wills of the ocean and, more than once, ships and men have been lost to its depths. Her father takes the loss of the men the hardest.

Belle's father is a kind man. Her mother had died when both Belle and her father were too young for her loss. Belle doesn't remember her mother or how her father was before her death. She never felt the loss keenly, but she reckons her father still does. He never remarried. Belle thinks losing her mother made him more sensitive to the losses that others incur. So he takes the losses of men harder than when the loss of an expensive shipment of spices means that there is hardly money for food, let alone a maid. So Belle learns to clean and sew. Her father is also a practical man, so even when there is money in abundance – which her father never saves, but gives away – and money enough for a maid and a cook and guards, he encourages her to practice these skills.

Belle's father also encourages her to read. He brings her books, but she prefers when he tells her tales himself, weaving intricately detailed stories of distant lands that she hopes to see herself one day. Her father says the ships are too dangerous, but that there is a new design that may be safer. Or maybe she can travel with him next time he journeys overland. He promises her that soon, when she is older, he will take her to see the world.

At night, after dinner, when her father is tired and his voice low he tells her of love. Belle's mother had been the most beautiful woman in the world _(except you now, my love)_ though to anyone else's eyes she might have seemed plain. Belle spent many nights sat at her father's elbow as he told her that while loving someone made you vulnerable; he had drawn strength enough from just one shared glance with her mother. He had loved her instantly. How even knowing how it had ended, knowing he would live a lifetime of heartache, he would make the same decisions again and pursue their short life together. Sometimes, he admits quietly that he still loves her mother enough to hate her for leaving him.

Belle learns much from these stories. For that is her father's greatest strength: he loves her, and her dead mother, and the men he loses to the sea, and their families. Later, when there has been a calming of the sea and a great many successful shipments and her father's home has grown to a castle, to a village of employees, to a town, Belle's father loves every single one of the people who live within the city limits. And it is _this_ that leads him to a desperate situation when reports bring the news that the Ogre Army has suddenly swung southwards, headed for the sea. Their merchant town lies directly in its path.

The Ogre Wars have been fought for a long time. There had been a Great War many, many years previously and the ogres had been beaten back, somehow. There are rumours that this time around, there is a dark witch who sits beside the Ogre King in his chambers and whispers orders to him. It is said that he is besotted, and so sends his armies wherever she instructs. Belle thinks: if this is true, then love must be insanity, unable to see or react to reason. Untameable. She thinks of her father who, more than two decades following her loss, will sometimes lock himself in his rooms to read old letters from her mother. She has seen them, and the letters are not all love letters. In fact, they are mostly descriptive of what he is missing at home while he is abroad. Belle had found them boring and repetitive to read. Her father tells her that these letters are the dearest to him. They are, he says, a door between her mother then and himself now. He likes to think that he is bringing her mother along with him through his life's adventure, that somehow he is binding them together. Belle thinks that this is madness, too.

So, the only loves Belle has ever known of have been the love of her father for her mother, herself and his people, and the mysterious love of the Ogre King for the dark witch. She has always preferred adventure stories to romance, but in an effort to understand, she takes to her book collection and searches for another perspective. Love, she thinks, is complicated. Her life would be dark if her father did not love her. His life would be lighter if he had loved her mother less. The legends she finds within the pages of her books do not bring clarification. Love makes people do things which they would not otherwise do, and Belle is a sensible girl and does not comprehend it.

She has friends, and she asks them. Her friends say that they love this guard or that scullery boy, but they love them because those men are strong and beautiful. Belle isn't sure that this is true love, in any sense she is familiar with. Her friends fall around like idiots when these men pass, though, and Belle wonders whether her father did the same when he first knew her mother.

Her father has always impressed upon her the importance of marrying for love, but one night he calls for her. There has been an offer of marriage, he tells her. Sir Gaston's army has been successful before when combating the ogres. They have weapons and armoury and experience that her father is not sure he could provide his people otherwise. Belle has agreed to the union before her father can even fully voice his apology. Belle has seen what love has done to her father and the Ogre King and she does not understand it. She does not want it. There is no loss involved for her, but she understands why her father's face falls as it does at her words. _His_ true love has shaped and wreaked destruction on his whole life, but he still does not regret it. He had hoped he had raised her to fight for love as he does, when he reads old letters for the thousandth time. Belle loves her father, but she does not understand the other kind of love. She smiles, and lies. _Father, I understand. This is a great sacrifice. But I am willing, you see? Maybe in time I can love Gaston the way you loved mother?_

Gaston comes the next day. He is handsome, yes, and very tall. Belle is sure he will have to kneel to kiss her on their wedding day, or else she shall have to stand upon a large box. He brings her a rose, a ring, and a book. Belle is touched by the gesture, although she sees that it is one brought a long time ago by her father from Turkey, if she recalls. Her father is trying to fight for a love between her and Gaston. She loves her father, so she does not look to him when she receives the book from Gaston. She curtsies prettily and thanks him and takes his arm for a stroll outside.

Gaston turns out to be friendly, and kind. He has her in hysterics as he imitates the chief palace guard, waddling up and down in front of a row of rose bushes as Belle lays on his cloak on the grass. "Now you get out of here!" he exclaims, gesturing with a pointed finger just as the guard does. They spend a whole happy week together in this way. He reads, too, but as he _lives_ an adventure he prefers history books and war manuals. "Someone must fight", he proclaims, continuing that he'd rather it be him as he knows what he's doing. He tells her of a province which is recruiting children to fight. He's bull-headed sometimes, but Belle supposes that he rather needs to be. She wears the ring happily enough, but sometimes catches him looking at her sadly. Maybe there was someone he loved who he'd rather wore it, and he'd lost her – for that is what happens in love.

Before he leaves for another battle with the ogres, he brings her seven new books, piling them into her arms and knocking a finger on her nose affectionately. "Try not to read all of them before I get back!" He says, and then is gone.

Belle feels a strange ache at his leaving. She has never loved a friend before, but she thinks Gaston may be teaching her how, with his easy words and gestures. There is no heat in her breast, as she has read about, but there is suddenly a deep-rooted respect and affection for Gaston. It has surprised her. She returns to her rooms, and finds another book on the dresser, with a note. _Just in case I'm late. G._ Although this book looks the most exciting, she saves it until last, hoping that he won't be late.


	2. Chapter 2

On Gaston's return, there is a sudden flurry of activity in the castle. Belle is not used to being excluded from the war council, so is shocked when one of her father's men makes to shoo her from the room. She holds her ground, indignant. Her father is purple-faced across the room.

"Belle, this is men's talk. You have no place-" the old man begins, but Belle interrupts.

"No, _you_ have no place! I am the king's daughter! I shall do as I see fit, which is to sit beside my father!" It's not like Belle to use this, her trump card, and the words feel wrong coming from her mouth. Thomas is one of her father's most trusted advisors, a man she respects deeply. But she will not be anywhere but at her father's side.

From behind there comes a gentle snort. Gaston has overheard her outburst, and the men share a look over the top of her head. His gaze drops fondly to her, and she would be incensed, because Belle is nothing if not proud, but for his next words – insultingly phrased as they are. "Come on then, petal. Sit by your father, although I doubt you'll understand the men-folk's talk." Her gaze narrows but Gaston grins widely, though it doesn't reach his eyes. Thomas is satisfied and leaves the betrothed alone.

Gaston wraps the fingers of his hand around Belle's arm and walks her away from the crowd to the window. Belle glances at the rim of distant blood red sky and resists the urge to put her hands on her hips and demand information from Gaston. He's not even trying to smile anymore; his eyes are dark and intense. "Belle, you must know something. The ogres are closer than we thought – much closer. The city of Westleigh fell three days ago."

Belle struggles with this. Westleigh is only a few days ride away. She's been there, on trade with her father. She thinks of the smell of the busy market, spices and material. She thinks of the tavern where they stayed, the children of the proprietor. Dead. All dead. She thinks of buildings burned to the ground, and ogres chewing on the bones of men. How awful it is that she feels some relief at this, because the longer the ogres spend laying waste to the fallen city, the longer her own can survive.

"What can we do?" Belle asks. There is always something. That is what she has learned in this room.

"When we saw… when… " Gaston begins haltingly. He swallows and looks at her apologetically. "There were children, Belle. Many children." She nods encouragingly, lips tight with worry and rubs his arm. There is nothing she can say and for a moment she is glad that she is a woman and has not been to war. Gaston is so brave, but he bows his head for a moment and she fears he will cry. "We called for the deal-maker, Rumplestiltskin. He should come tonight."

This is a last resort, Belle knows. There will be a hefty price to pay. The idea has been bandied about before, with no real seriousness. Everyone knows that when you deal with Rumplestiltskin he takes more than you can afford. She and Gaston share a moment in silence before the meeting is called.

When Rumplestiltskin names her as his price, Belle is surprised for a moment. It is this that keeps her silent as Gaston sweeps her back with a massive arm, declaring her engagement. What possible worth could she have compared to protection for her city?

Gaston is brave. Her father is brave. Belle is not, in this moment, but she decides that she will do the brave thing and maybe bravery will follow. She looks into crazed eyes and tells the stranger "I will go with you, forever." When she looks around the room, at her father's men and papa and Gaston, she loves all of them. Even knowing that they will live, it still burns to leave.

There is a carriage waiting outside, which Rumplestiltskin helps her into. He giggles maniacally and asks, "Are you frightened, dearie?"

Belle is nothing if not proud, so she replies that she is not. She's freezing in her ball gown, but stays silent, curled up on the bench. When the rocking of the carriage lulls her to sleep, she sleeps soundly. She wakes once and feels a thick blanket has been tucked around her, but in the morning it is gone.

There is a day of travel and a night in a dungeon before they speak again. Belle breaks a tea cup out of nerves, but then they chat over dinner. She's wary, but comfortable. She chose to come, after all and this man is her town's saviour. She's still surprised that the price wasn't fifty first-borns or something ridiculous like that. She's shocked further when, after she's cleared away the dishes, Rumplestiltskin leads her upstairs and instructs her to choose a room.

"I thought the dungeon was my room."

"Watch it, dearie, or it may well be!" he wags a finger in her face, and Belle thinks she hears the teasing tone now.

"Where do you sleep?" she asks, face set to show that this doesn't scare her.

"Why, hanging upside-down from the rafters of course!" The imp exclaims, and giggles again, gesturing to the ceiling.

In the end, he shows her. It is at the end of a dark passage, where no candles burn. What may be a mirror hanging on the wall is covered with a thick cloth. Belle primly declares the room next door to be hers. If Rumplestiltskin is surprised, it shows only for a moment. They settle in the main room for a while, Belle with a book by the fire and Rumplestiltskin at the wheel.

Eventually, he breaks the vast silence that has fallen. He speaks quietly and does not look at her. "You know, dearie, there is a whole other wing to the castle. That is not the only corridor of bedrooms this place has. You could sleep far enough away from me as to forget that I am here. I only asked for a caretaker, we need not interact at all."

Belle hmms and turns a page. "I don't see why we need both be lonely."

She falls asleep by the fire. She wakes up in her new bedroom, a new dress hanging on the door. She lays still for a moment and wonders about Rumplestiltskin's monstrous reputation, whether that or his behaviour here is an act.

"Are you going to sleep forever, dearie?" he calls from outside. "Are you or I the caretaker?" he giggles wildly, and is gone before Belle can rush to the door to apologise.

They settle into a routine. She cleans, he spins, they drink endless amounts of tea. He teases her mercilessly, once going so far as to sweep her up and tickle her when she'd called his deals nefarious and illegitimate – _my deals – dearie – are honest! How can I help it if those I deal with are not! _– they ended up tangled on the plush rug in front of the fire. He'd been very uncomfortable afterwards, kept his distance, until Belle sneaked up behind him and grabbed his sides in retaliation. He'd screamed like a girl, and they'd declared themselves even.

He disappears, sometimes for days at a time. The castle is huge and empty without him. She sets tea for two, just in case. She discovers the library, but brings her books down to the main hall to read instead. Because of the high backed chairs by the fire, no doubt. Certainly not so that she will hear him return.

After a few false starts and a bit of sweet-talking of the oven, Belle gets the hang of cooking. Rumple brings her a recipe book. Belle demands ingredients. Rumple, grumbling, goes back out to the local village to provide them. There are no illusions of who is the master, or rather mistress, of this home. Rumple walks in on her changing just once, too excited by a deal to knock. He spends the next few days backing away whenever she steps near him. Belle deliberately intrudes on him in the bath.

Once, when she has remembered that blackberry preserves are his favourite and presents them to him with breakfast, he looks up at her with such innocence that she is taken aback. Her smile freezes on her face as she realises that he is surprised. That he is allowed to wrap her in blankets and bring her new books but that he never expected kindness from her. That evening, she hears the spinning wheel slow and stop. After a minute, she looks up from her book and catches him quickly looking back at his work. He resumes his spinning.

"Are you happy here, Belle?" he asks, though he never uses her name.

Belle is glad that she can honestly answer that she is.


End file.
